What is Kestrel?
Kestrel is a multi-tenant SaaS computer-aided dispatch (CAD) and records management platform (RMS) built for FiveM and other roleplay communities. It's designed to feel like real public-safety operational software — dense, real-time, keyboard-driven — while staying purpose-built for the realities of running a game server: volunteer staffing, high turnover, in-character/ out-of-character separation, and everything in between.
Kestrel is not a reskin of any specific real-world or existing FiveM CAD product — its information architecture is driven directly by the workflows public-safety roleplay actually needs.
The core loop
Kestrel gives a game community's staff the same core loop a real public safety agency runs, adapted for roleplay:
- Dispatch console — a full-screen, persistent operational workspace: a pending call queue, an active calls board, the unit roster, a call detail panel, and an alert/BOLO ticker, all live in real time. No manual refresh, and no page navigation for the core loop.
- MDT (mobile data terminal) — the officer/medic-facing field workspace: on-duty status, self-dispatch to open calls, en-route/on-scene updates, universal person/plate/name search with officer-safety results surfaced above the fold, and citation/arrest authoring straight from a search result. Runs in a browser or inside a FiveM in-game overlay.
- Records management — civilians, vehicles, properties/addresses, warrants (draft → supervisor approval → active → served/recalled), citations, arrests with charges, BOLOs with department-scoped visibility, and notes/attachments.
- Civilian portal & onboarding — a deliberately thin, lowest-privilege surface for players: their own citation/arrest history, tip submission, and a guided onboarding flow for standing up a new community.
- Administration — organisation/department/rank/callsign setup, a visual permissions matrix, staff management, and an audit log viewer.
Police, fire, and EMS workflows are all first-class, including multi-department incidents with staging (fire/EMS staged until PD confirms the scene is safe) and cross-department mutual aid handoff.
Every community, fully isolated
Every organisation ("community") that runs Kestrel gets its own fully isolated data — one community's calls, records, and staff are never visible to another, by construction, not just by convention.
How this documentation is organized
| Section | Covers |
|---|---|
| User Guide | Using Kestrel day to day — dispatch console, MDT and in-game commands, civilian portal, and setting up a community |
| API Reference | Building your own integration against Kestrel's server-to-server API |
This site documents Kestrel CAD specifically. Ashmere Software also builds other, independent products that are out of scope here.